Pakistan's Shoaibs to endorse Indian products

Kolkata:Increasing popularity of Pakistani cricketers appears to have struck a chord among Indian corporates who are roping in leading players to endorse their products.

"A number of Indian companies are in talks with us to appoint Pakistan cricketers as their brand ambassadors," said chief operating officer of Sports Management Resources (Pvt) Limited (SMR), Nauman Bader said here.

Bader, whose company manages advertising assignments on behalf of leading Pakistani cricketers, said Shoaib Akhtar topped the demand list of Indian companies followed closely by Shoaib Malik.

Companies like Ashai Glass and TVS have already decided to rope in Akhtar, who charged anything between 6 to 8 million Pakistani Rupees for featuring in ads in that country, to feature in their advertisements while talks were on with a number of other companies as well, he said.

Bader said Akhtar would be shooting in an advertisement of Inside Sports, leading sports goods maker, at locations in Australia during the teams upcoming series.

He said a number of Indian companies have approached them for roping in Mallik in their advertisement campaigns and a deal might be struck within next few days or by next month.

The SMR COO said Akhtar, who is Pakistan's only cricketer to be brand ambassador of the country's four leading companies - U Phone, Britannia Tiger Pakistan, TCS Courier and Pepsi - would be featuring in Simi Grewal's talk show on Star World, which would be shot on November 28.